Category Archives: Transfer window

• Juventus believe they can seal summer deal to sign Bellerín• Right-back questioning his career direction at Arsenal

Héctor Bellerín is a prime summer transfer target for Juventus. The Arsenal right-back has come to question his career direction in north London and Juventus believe they can close a deal for him.

Arsenal have previously resisted attempts by rival clubs to take the 22-year-old. Manchester City and Barcelona have tried and failed and Juventus had an opportunistic offer turned down on the final day of last summer’s window.

Slim pickings today after hundreds of football transfer rumours were left stranded overnight as extreme weather continued to wreak havoc across the UK – with Met Office representatives warning that the country ‘is not out of the woods yet’. Strengthening winds caused blizzards and drifting snow in some parts, bringing speculation regarding who the father of Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois may have been staging informal talks with to a standstill, leaving fans who stress over the future whereabouts of assorted footballers facing disruption for the fourth day in a row.

Despite the hazardous weather conditions, Tottenham Hotspur are preparing to bid for perma-knacked Borussia Dortmund winger Marco Reus, who last month returned from an eight-month spell on the sidelines and has already scored two goals in his five appearances. Reus is contracted to Dortmund until the end of next season, and is also wanted by Liverpool.

All good things must come to an end, and so too must Marouane Fellaini’s career at Manchester United. Even José Mourinho accepts now that he cannot delay the inevitable this time and is preparing to bid a tearful farewell to the towering Belgian this summer, when, apparently, Fellaini will join Galatasaray. This has not been a vintage season for Fellaini at Old Trafford – hampered by injuries, he’s only picked up one yellow card, compared to 14 yellows and a red last term – but Mourinho can reflect with pride on the fact that he brought the best out of Fellaini, a man whose deftness of chest contrasts so oddly with his clumsiness of elbow.

With Michael Carrick also set to leave United at the end of this season, Mourinho is on the prowl for new midfielders and has reportedly whittled his shopping list down to six names: Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos, Chelsea’s Willian, Tottenham’s Victor Wanyama, Lazio’s Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Nice’s Jean-Michaël Seri and Napoli’s Jorginho, who is also being monitored by Liverpool. They all have their qualities but none really have that Fellaini-esque pow factor, although Wanyama has his moments.

Having spent the past few months making himself even more popular than Raymond Domenech with the French public, Neymar has decided that he needs a fresh challenge. His gap year in Paris has been a lovely, life-affirming experience.

He has been able to give meaning to the lives of Ligue 1’s adorable little footballers by allowing them to see his array of skills up close and he has made friendships that will last a lifetime. Edinson Cavani will certainly be devastated to see the Brazilian leave. But the fun has to stop. It’s time to get serious. Real Madrid want Neymar. Cheerio!

The 23-year-old may not have a single cap for France but he has already played 200 professional games and ‘adds something special with the ball’

Aymeric Laporte turned Manchester City down once but he was not going to do it again and certainly not now. Pep Guardiola had tried to sign him in 2016 only for the Athletic Club defender to say he did not want to leave Bilbao; this time he did and “time” is the word. Guardiola admitted he had intended to return for the Frenchman in the summer but that, given what lies ahead, he brought that forward by six months. And while he insisted this signing is not just for now, it is for the next four or five years and beyond, the “now” matters – particularly for the player.

There was a reason Laporte, who made his City debut in Wednesday’s win over West Brom, stayed last time. He later admitted that because the bid had come when he was injured, he had concerns about his adaptation, about his ability to get up and running: he was young but it was more that not being at his best physically would make starting at a new club, league and country, with a new language, more difficult.

Manchester United have finally agreed to sign Alexis Sánchez from Arsenal with Henrikh Mkhitaryan to move in the other direction in what is understood to be a straight swap deal. This means that as there would not be any money exchanged between the clubs, United valued Mkhitaryan at around £35m, the fee Arsenal were demanding for Sánchez.

Sánchez, who was out of contract at Arsenal this summer, is expected to sign terms at United that will make him their highest-paid player, with speculation he could earn as much as £14m-a-year after tax or £500,000-per-week.